May 19

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1 Samuel 24:1-25:44
(1)(2011) This year an application learned from this passage might be required. Submitting to the sovereign will of God is de rigeur; however there are times when special application might not be too appealing to our pride. Here David is already anointed to be king of Israel, and his men counsel him to off Saul whom they interpret as being brought vulnerably to David hiding in a cave:

The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said[a] to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’”

Somehow I'm thinking of later when David's rule was being usurped by his son Absalom: I'm having difficulty interpreting whether or not David has some inability to do what's right.

Anyway, Matthew Henry thinks it was correct of David not to take matters into his own hands:

See how apt we are to misunderstand, 1. The promises of God. God had assured David that he would deliver him from Saul, and his men interpret this as a warrant to destroy Saul. 2. The providences of God. Because it was now in his power to kill him, they concluded he might lawfully do it.

. . . .

V. David cut off the skirt of his robe, but soon repented that he had done this: His heart smote him for it (v. 5); though it did Saul no real hurt, and served David for a proof that it was in his power to have killed him (v. 11), yet, because it was an affront to Saul's royal dignity, he wished he had not done it. Note, It is a good thing to have a heart within us smiting us for sins that seem little; it is a sign that conscience is awake and tender, and will be the means of preventing greater sins.

V. He reasons strongly both with himself and with his servants against doing Saul any hurt. 1. He reasons with himself (v. 6): The Lord forbid that I should do this thing. Note, Sin is a thing which it becomes us to startle at, and to resist the temptations to, not only with resolution, but with a holy indignation. He considered Saul now, not as his enemy, and the only person that stood in the way of his preferment (for then he would be induced to hearken to the temptation), but as God's anointed (that is, the person whom God had appointed to reign as long as he lived, and who, as such, was under the particular protection of the divine law), and as his master, to whom he was obliged to be faithful. Let servants and subjects learn hence to be dutiful and loyal, whatever hardships are put upon them, 1 Pt. 2:18. 2. He reasons with his servants: He suffered them not to rise against Saul, v. 7. He would not only not do this evil thing himself, but he would not suffer those about him to do it. Thus did he render good for evil to him from whom he had received evil for good, and was herein both a type of Christ, who saved his persecutors, and an example to all Christians not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.

John 10:22-42

Psalm 116:1-19

Proverbs 15:20-21

Years Read
2011